>> on your screen is a picture of downtown charlotte, coming into view just shortly will be the time warner cable arena where the democratic national convention will kick off tomorrow, three days of the convention, and of course, gavel to gavel coverage on c-span and c-span.org. and it's also labor day, 2012, the president will be in toledo, ohio, for a uaw picnic. live coverage today on c-span at 12:30 p.m. eastern time of

that campaign rally. we, the washington examiner yesterday had this article. obama to try to make case for sticking with him. don't expect president obama to try to reinvent himself this week at the democratic national convention. instead, he and a slew of his defenders will seek to convince voters to stick with the president they know, rather than gamble on someone they don't. a challenging task, tpeufpb that most americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction. that's from the washington examiner this morning, and that's what we're asking you this morning. president obama, 2008 voters, are you sticking with him? yes or no? two hundred two is the area code, you say yes you're sticking with him here in 2012, 737-ooo16789, there's a number for you to dial, 202-737-ooo2 if you say no, you're changing your mind. you can also make a comment on our facebook page,

facebook.com/c-span or send in a tweet and there's a couple of different ways of sending in a tweet. you can do it at c-span wj for the "washington journal" or you can use the hash tag c-span dnc, which is the hash tag we will be using for the next several days here on c-span. further, you can send an e-mail at journal at c-span.org. the national journal this morning has this article on the convention, some of the things democrats will be answering this week, is the same of the article, and it says it may have started out a bit slow on the red meat front but by the end of the three-day republican national convention in tampa, plenty of accusations and issues had been laid at president obama's feet. here's a look at some of the main attack lines, gop convention speakers used that you will likely see addressed in charlotte when the democrats gather. where you -- are you better

off, the central message of mitt romney's spec -- speech, that election point in 2008 was the high point of the obama presidency, david axelrod quickly set the response, he pointed to auto workers who benefitted from the bailout, americans helped by obama's health care reform, troops who have returned from iraq, those were good nights, axelrod said. jobs, jobs, jobs. romney said he would produce 12 million new jobs with a 5-step plan that includes unspecified tax cuts, domestic energy independence, deficit reduction and repeal of obama's health care law. democrats will point, steady growth in jobs on the president's watch while not enough would be boosted if republicans would support his jobs act, still languishing on capitol hill. another issue that the democrats will be focusing on includes the deficit and the debt. paul ryan, rand paul and mitch mcconnell were just three of the headliners who hammered obama on the rate of federal spending and size of

the national debt, the fact that the obama administration is overseeing the addition of more than 5 trillion to the federal debt was a favorite applause line. paul pointed out that the u.s. gross debt just under 16 trillion is now on par with gdp. and taxes, energy, obama air, medicare, mel care reform are some of the issues addressed in charlotte this week by the democrats, according to the national journal. again, president obama 2008 voters, are you sticking with him in 2012? first up is william, from london, kentucky on our yes line. william, tell us your views. caller: i'm sticking with obama. i think he is trying. i think the republicans just keep knocking down everything he has done. the politicians are supposed to be for the country. i can't understand why they don't put their heads together and come up with something and work together. doesn't make any sense to me.

just a bunch of wasting money host: also jamie in clarks i don't know, go ahead. caller: i'm sticking with president obama. for one thing, his health care reform. my grandson for the first time in his 23 years, he has health care. and nobody, nobody has a right to take that away from him. host: from the hill newspaper, gibbs, obama doesn't expect legal of 2008 enthusiasm in 2012, senior adviser robert gibbs on sunday denied that voters are disappointed in obama but acknowledge that the enthusiasm of supporters in '08 would be hard to copy this year, quote, i don't think that there is voter disappointment, gibbs said on cnn's state of the union, the voters understand that we have been through a traumatic economic experience in the country, unlike anything that we have ever seen. gibbs said that no one in the campaign expects the level of

enthusiasm obama generated in the historic 2008 convention. next call comes from texas, janet within our no line. janet, you voted for the president, why not in 2012. janet? she is gone. just want to give you an idea of what the schedule is for the democratic convention. some of the highlights here include beginning on tuesday, former president jimmy carter will be via video making miss speech -- his speech, the keynote address, julianne cass ro and first lady michelle obama will be speaking on tuesday, wednesday, elizabeth warren, giving the nominating speech for the president. one of the keynotes is former president bill clinton and the roll call of states and vote on presidential nominations will happen on wednesday, then on thursday,

senator john kerry of massachusetts, vice president obama, and barack obama will be accepting the nomination for president on thursday night, again, all live, gavel to gavel coverage on c-span. next call comes from oklahoma city, oklahoma. tanya, you say yes you will be supporting the president still. why? caller: yes. i will be supporting the president, sir. because during the economic crisis, where so many jobs were lost, people not only lost their jobs, their income , they lost their health care, and when you lose your health care, if you become sick, it's hard to find health care with preexisting conditions it's hard for you to afford health care. if you want to get that cobra plan, it's exorbitant, it's high, and so what he did was a phenomenal job, because not

only did he stabilize the financial community to try to keep the whole world from just ruining and going down, but he saw a need with health care and he went ahead and passed that health care plan, which everybody was talking about was a lot, very much a lot of his capital and political -- but he did that to help the financial crisis. so he did so many things at once, that you have to do coming in as a president, and that to me is he was seeing the need for the people, to help the people. host: on saturday the president was in iowa. he laid out part of his campaign strategy: >> [video clip] now, this thursday night, i will offer you what i believe is a better path forward.

a path that grows this economy, creates more good jobs, strengthens the middle class. and the good news is you get to choose which path we take. we can pick -- we can take their path or we can take the path that i'm going to present. we can choose whether we give massive new tax cuts to folks who have already made it, or whether we keep the tax cuts for every american who's still trying to make it. i have cut taxes by a total of $3600 for the typical family, and i'm now wanting to make sure that taxes aren't raised a dime on your family's first $250,000 of income. that's the path forward. but you're going to have to choose it. it will be up to you.

you can choose whether we see new jobs and new industries to -- creed new jobs and new industries to countries like china, or whether we fight for those jobs for states like iowa. host: and this morning on the "washington journal", we're asking voters who supported president obama in 2008 if you're sticking with him in 2012. anna from to hisson, arizona. -- tucson, arizona, you say no you're not. why not anna? caller: really, i didn't know the man when he was in there, but when he got elected, but i got to know him and i don't like where he's taking our country to. i don't like the very -- i don't know what you would call it, the downing of romney and ryan as much as he

does, and the money that he's taking from the accounts for the senior citizens over their $7 trillion. he's taking out of the account. i'm 72 years old. he don't need to be taking the money from us seniors. host: and that was anna in to hisson, arizona -- in tucson, arizona. in politico, democrats continue to dodge four years ago questions, the questions democrats didn't want to answer head on sunday, are americans better off than they were four years ago. asked the same question repeatedly, host george stephanopoulos on abc this week, presidential advising david plouffe reverted to talking about job creation and the bush administration. they were this great to a depression, pinching his index finger, stephanopoulos

cut him short, you still can't say yes, he told plouffe. we're clearly improved, george, we've mad a -- made a lot of progress from the depths of the recession, we've got to continue to recover, plouffe pandered republicans for fairy dust as an alixir and says americans know we had a deep hole to climb out of from 2008 onward. that's from politico. some of the facebook comments we've been receiving from this question from '08 obama supporters, whether or not they're still sticking with him in 2012, here is fred. yes, he's a man of the people. the other guy is not. chris says yes, because he is the only candidate fighting for the middle class, equality, education, and the poor, the veterans, women, et cetera. and adam says no to barack bin laden and mitt romney because they're both lying nar cystic sociopaths. down with oligarchy.

ed says i would say 50-50 because there's a lot on the fence, with economy issues and the lack of jobs and despite the inaction of congress the president is still being held accountable. some of the facebook comments. if you'd like to make a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/c-span. no hyphen in c-span. patricia in bristol, virginia, you say you're sticking with the president. please tell us why. caller: absolutely. i voted for president barack obama in 2008 and i am more than happy to ask the question are you better off than you were four years ago. my answer is no, but i know the reason why. i know the reason why this economy has been dragged down like it is. the president cannot make employers hire. he can set the agenda so help to stimulate the economy, so

that employers will hire. well, employers now have over a trillion dollars sitting in the bank and people need to understand. the president cannot make the private sector hire. they have to hire. and i mean, this subject to me is so emotional, when i hear people talk about our president spilling $17 million out of medicare, they do not read the facts. they have said over and over what he's done. he's closed the doughnut hole for seniors. this president is trying. and i just think he really does need more time. i take this so emotional. i am a big obama supporter, because i see how hard this man works. and how he's been criticized in the public, and nobody is telling these people who are criticizing them, please -- wi just ask that all the networks to please, that

romney, that ryan, ask themo he. >> host: the rischa in -- patricia, who commented on the "aror better off" line in political seurbls, and the governor of maryland, martin o'malley was on cbs' "face the nation" yesterday and talked about it as well. >> that's not the question of this election. the question, without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before george bush broughts us the bush job loss, the bush recession, the bush deficits, the series of desert wars, charged for the first time to national credit cards. >> and john in santa monica, california, are you sticking with the president? caller: no, i'm not sticking. i'm actually independent and growing up, i was actually very pro bill clinton, even though at the time i wasn't old enough to vote but i was

very impressed from what i saw from bill clinton in the sense that what he did was he offered us bipartisanship. i like how he and newt gingrich worked together to create jobs back then and coming off of the heels of the bush years, i was very concerned that because -- because i felt the country was torn that we wouldn't get anything done because there wasn't too much unity and bipartisanship and that's when i jumped on the barack obama bandwagon because i thought that he would be the guy that would be able to bring us all together to create what we have. >> which is the strongest economy and sustain it. now, barack obama, granted, he's got this jobs plan on the table, and that's going to be his response, like axelrod, his campaign manager, david axelrod responded that he is waiting to pass his jobs bill, but at the end of the day he's clearly shown us that he is

not capable of working bipartisanly with the republicans. now, there could be some reasons for that. some of that could be that he arouses aning to anymore -- antagonism by going for his double to nothing policy, like for instance, with the health care plan and other economic plans. i feel that if he compromised a little he could maybe earn some more bipartisan support which is what we need to get the economy fixed. >> john in santa monica, california. this is the weekly standard, bill clinton on obama a few weeks agoo years ago, this guy would have been care i didn'ting our bags, he tried to get former senator ted kennedy to endorse hillary clinton in the election by describing barack obama this way, quote, a few years ago this guy would have been carrying our dags, this anecdote revealed in the new yorker article on the

relationship between bill clinton and obama. tim russert told me that according to his sources, bill clinton, in an effort to secure an endorsement from ted kennedy said to kennedy a few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags, clinton is giving a keynote address at the democratic convention in charlotte. that's in the national journal this morning. and here's a little bit of ryan liz's new yorker article from this week. you can find it at new yorker.com, as the 2008 presidential campaign took shape obama emerged as the leader of a new anticlinton wing, his psycho drama argument blossomed into a full-scale criticism of the clinton presidency, this time, though, the target was another presidential aspirant, hillary clinton, who obama argued was too polarizing to get anything done in washington. again, new yorker.com, in case you're interested in reading that article for yourself. maria, are you sticking with the president?

las vegas, new mexico is where maria is from. go ahead, please. caller: i love my president. i think he's going a -- doing a great job. i think it's horrific the way they talk about him, no respect, saying lies and everything about him and as far as our insurance goes, i have paid insurance for years, to have medicare, and i've always paid it, and my insurance keeps going up every year. it has nothing do with omabacare. that's what i call it. and as far as our governor going over there and talking about the president didn't build that and this and packing her gun, martinez has never done anything -- there's no jobs here that she has created, that balance the budget with stimulus money. yes, i love my president, and here in las vegas, we love

him, we pray for him every day and he's going to win. thank you for taking my call. host: that was maria in las vegas, new mexico. up next is susan. i apologize. robert. in new york city. robert, are you sticking with the president. caller: no. good morning to you. i'm having trouble sticking with anybody with what i see on c-span. everything seems so polarized, everything that everybody says is 202nd sound bites, not even 30 seconds, with so little validity. the entire republican and democratic situation seems more like a machine which simply exists to give jobs to all their friends. i always wonder whenever i hear any new commission being formed to study this, that or the other thing, how much money is wasted on each one of these commissions it seems

to be impossible to support either of the major candidates. i wish that huntsman were still running or maybe i'll go with gary johnson. they both seem to be -- have a rational approach to the whole situation. but i have such difficulty either sticking with obama or switching to romney. the data that they present is just untenable. host: that was robert in new york city. the president will be in toledo, ohio today and we will have live coverage of that uaw labor day picnic at 12:30 p.m. eastern time, right here on c-span. paul ryan will be campaigning at east carolina university in north carolina, and we will be covering that as well, probably not live, but we will bring it to you at some point today on c-span as well. and our gavel to gavel coverage of the democratic national convention kicks off

tomorrow when it begins, and you will see all three days of the democratic national convention starting times still to be determined. we get that information for sure, we will share it with you. we are asking president obama 2008 voters this morning whether you're sticking with him in 2012, and kurt on our facebook page makes this comment, if i always waited for the perfect candidate, i'd never vote. obama has done a great job, considering the congress he had to work with. i wish he had realized that mcconnell and friends were serious about their vow to never work with him, never compromise with him and never reach across the aisle, much less be reached across the aisle, too. in the end they just pretended obama is the intrancy gent one which they would have done whether obama had been intrancy gent or not, and james says the bumper stickers are off and thrill is gone, obama has shown himself when he has time to fill out his golf card but not the time to sign

letters to the following servicemens' families. susan, are you sticking with the president in 2012? susan is in baltimore. hi susan. caller: hello. no i'm not going to stick with president obama this time. i feel that he's creating such a divisive atmosphere in our country and a very -- i'm very concerned for that, being the person who we want in our leadership. i feel like he has not shown us any substantive plans in the four years that he's been in business as the president, and instead, it seems like he wants to be rehraeblgt dollars, he picks -- reelected, he picks hot button issues such as will and illegal aliens, and he just starts divisiveness and causes peoples' emotions, the people who fall in those

categories, i'm one of those people, and i have children and they are in one of those categories, and he doesn't have a plan, he puts it temporarily together and touts that as plan, but it's not, so that he can get reelected. again, if he was doing a good reelection campaign and maybe used things like that but also had demonstrated over the last almost four years some good, strong substantive plans that brought the economy to our country and brought the people together, which is one of the things we supported, then i would feel different but he hasn't delivered any of that, so i'm not quoting -- voting for him at all and i hope some of these people who are torn, these women, children, if you're torn emotionally by some of the topics that he presents, please look and see if he has any substantive ways to solve them in the long term and make our country a wonderful, healthy country.

host: that was susan in baltimore, up next, ron in gulf port, mississippi. are you sticking with the president in 2012. caller: yes i am, because of the fact that when he came into office we were hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs a month. number two, if you have a mother, a daughter, or a sister, now they can get the same -- pay for the same -- get paid for the same work. if you have a sick child with a preexisting condition or not or a child that's in college, they can stay on the health care plan until they are 26. if you are hispanic, gay, he tries to bring them into america to make them inclusive instead of exclusive. if you are an auto worker, he saved the auto industry. but then the most thing, the most important thing about him we have to look at, we ended up in iraq because of a trust issue. we do not know why we ended up there. but the facts indicated that

we ended up there because somebody told a lie, and the thing about that is this, is that whoever takes that office, we're going to have to know beyond a shadow of a doubt before they send any americans, young person to war, that we can trust that they are really sending him there. we have a trust issue. because one person won't show their taxes, one person will have off shore bank accounts, one person is a liar. here's the thing. they are a liar when you fact check it and there is no mention of the issue during the campaign because they don't care about this. host: ron i think we got your point. two unrepresented questions: number one, how badly was gulf port hit by isaac? caller: it wasn't hit as bad by isaac as it was by katrina. so we are very thankful for that. host: did you lose your

power? did it flood at all? caller: no, we didn't. only the phone. host: also this article in the wa pox, this obituary, ron, were you aware of this, was this reported in your morning paper, that the author and mother of good morning america's robin roberts, lucy marian roberts, died in gulf port over the weekend, did you see that? caller: excuse me? host: did you see that robin roberts' mother died in gulf port this weekend? caller: yes i did and we're sorry for her mother's loss. host: that's the obituary in the washington host. detroit, gene, are you sticking with the president in 2012 gene? caller: yes i am and i'll tell you why. it's not just about him, but it's about the ideological difference between the democrats and the republicans republicans care about money, and the democrats care about people. i was watching one of the

programs, and on the night of the president's inauguration, there was a dinner of about 15 republicans, including paul ryan, and at that dinner, they made the determination that they were going to do everything they could to block the president so that he would not be reelected. one of the things they were going to do was go after geithner, one of the other things they were going to do is to be against everything that the president was for, and we've heard them say several times this is the program that the republicans help presented. well, they voted against it because they do not want him to succeed. so not only does he need to be reelected, but the house of representatives needs to turn democrat. hose host and that's gene in detroit, michigan. by the way, all week, we'll have an extended "washington

journal", just as we did last week while the republicans were meeting in tampa. we'll also be bringing you every morning the politico play book breakfast, where the publication politico has a newsmaker, too. at a breakfast, we'll be bringing you that live from charlotte. this morning they have antonio villaraigosa, the mayor of los angeles, and chairman of the democratic national convention. he is the newsmaker this morning at the politico play book breakfast. that is due to start about 8:30 a.m. a couple of e-mails we've received on the question we're asking this morning of president obama's '08 supporters, i will be voting for president obama again, just because i like him, it has nothing to do with party, it is because is he as aligned himself with compassionon and i think he calls the world just a bit. another e-mail was bob, is bob from venice, florida, i went with obama four years ago as an independent and will do so again.

the alternative is a pair of candidates who are building their campaign on a foundation of lies and distorted information. next call comes from armondo in bar harbor maine. are you sticking with the president in 2012? >> you know i'm not. i am desperately hopeing -- >> [inaudible] >> i think that when he started the term focusing on health care, i thought that was important, something that would help, business, right? if you think about the burden of health care on business, it would be terrific if they could come to a solution that would help the businesses, however, what i was thinking of, and i think a lot of independents were thinking of was perhaps relying on something that is more of a government-directed program like canada, and instead we ended up with this program where what we are doing is

asking people from health insurance companies and i think that is leadership and when i look at the rest of the presidency, going back to the health care initiative and we didn't spend time on job creation, and now here's where we are, four years later, there are no jobs because we spent so much time on health care and so much time on things that -- we didn't think about the bailout of auto unions, wall street. host: we've got to apologize to you. it's a little bit of a bad connection, makes it a little difficult to hear. well, eric fernstrom is a senior adviser to the romney kpraeupb and he was on the sunday shows yesterday talking about the convention coming up this week. >> when he took office after his inauguration, he said in an interview if he didn't have the economy turned around after three years, it wo be a one term proposition

and the economy hasn't turned around. the biggest news next week, candy, will not be the three nights of the democratic convention but it will be on friday when we hear again about the monthly jobs report for the month of august. and we're all hoping for good news but the odds are high that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent where it's been for almost the entire span of the obama presidency. host: back to your calls and e-mails and facebook comments and tweets on whether or not if you're an obama supporter in '08, whether you're sticking with him in 2012. here's more of our facebook comments. artemesia says yes, i am sticking with him, he is the right person for the job. it is the legislators who met on the night of the inauguration with a stated plan to make his presidency fail. sandy says yes, because romney represents going back to failed trickle down economic polices yes, i am suppe

president and waiting for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. more comments on our facebook page. by the way that, conversation continues all day long on facebook.dom/-- face back.com there is a poll of obama '08 voters, whether or not you are sticking with the president in 2012. david. >> david, are you sticking with the president. caller: they say don't try to change horses in the middle of the river and president obama has done a good job of keeping us safe from the terrorists and they're still trying to kill us. i think i'll just stick with him. plus the fact that he's trying to get us out of the depression and i think he's done a pretty good job under the circumstances. >> host: and vice president joe biden on sunday said

romney was ready to go to war in syria and iran, and offering a broad critique of the gop candidates' foreign policy during a campaign rally in new york,o in york, pennsylvania. here's a little of vice president biden from yesterday. [video clip] romney ted waso sowed it was a mistake by ended -- by ending that war by bringing our warriors home. in of a, we have lost 1984 fallen angels because of yesterday and i'm precise because every single one of those lives deserves mentioned and god knows what has happened in the last 24 hours. >> and as of yesterday,

17,382 of our warriors have been wounded, and romney thought the decision that the president of the united states, we have 50 allies working with us, naughto and other countries in afghanistan. the president organized them. all 50 of them said it's time to set a date to hand over responsibility to the afghans and bring our 90,000 troops home. now, what did romney say? he said that was a mistake. host: well, rana from boston, massachusetts, are you sticking with the president in 2012? caller: no. but i still have a statement i want to make, peter. host: we're listening. caller: i have written you e-mails, tweeted you, sent you about 30, 40 e-mails and

i know some of my neighbors in the addition where i live have said many -- have sent many, many e-mails, because we've discussed this. we want to know who is this woman that gets on sometimes twice a day and every day, they call from tennessee, she has about 10 different names, she says the name is ann. one day they got her on, it was about 9:15, she said her name was ann, s called right back and somebody called her and she got on again, said her name was marsha. now, i know you all know who it is, so this is what we want to know, why and how can somebody get on, every day, sometimes twice a day, and we've been trying to get on for, oh, some of my neighbors, for years. host: that is irritating, isn't it? i promise nobody is calling her back. we don't want her to call in, either, except every 30 years. but lorania, why aren't you sticking with the president in 2012.

caller: i want to know why this lady could get on like this and this is bothering us and we decided we weren't going to watch c-span. that's all i have to say. host: our next call comes from vicky in cincinnati, ohio. vicky in 2008, obama supporter, are you sticking with the president in 2012? caller: absolutely. thank you to c-span first of all, i've watched for years and i'm a first time caller. but it's incredible to listen to people that are i guess uninformed, because they're willing to vote against their own best interests, and i think that the republicans play to peoples' fears, and that's the on thing i can come up with, because i can't understand why it is that they can't see what he's been up against. i mean, he's had absolutely no support, and the people that vowed, mitch mcconnell,

john boehner, and i'm here in the great state of ohio that is going to vote for obama. we did the last time, and i was thrilled to see that ohio went blue, but he's hard working, he's genuine, he's done what he promised he would do. we wanted health care reform. we wanted out of iraq. he turned the auto industry around. it's amazing what he's been able to accomplish. we didn't get -- the country did not, you know, get in the shape that it's in in four years. it was eight years and it's going to take longer than two terms. host: vicky, what do you do in cincinnati? caller: well, i'm in the process right now of starting my own business, actually. host: what kind of business? caller: i'm starting an orthodontic lab and consulting firm. i was in corporate america for over 20 years, and the

restructuring, you know, i saw a lot of good people get hurt, what was a good company at one time -- everything changed. it was so sad, my whole world was upside down. everything that we worked so hard for to build that little company, they started taking away, slowly and bringing in new upper management, and you wouldn't even recognize that company. i left at my own accord, actually. host: all right. vicky, let's leave it there, that's vicky in cincinnati, ohio. now the president will be accepting the nomination for president from his party next thursday night. vice president joe biden will be accepting the nomination for vice president that night and the other speaker on thursday night is john kerry. one of many speakers. but those are three of the

featured speakers, of course. and live gavel to gavel coverage, beginning tomorrow of the democratic national convention being held in charlotte at the time warner cable arena in downtown charlotte. the president will also be in toledo, ohio today at a uaw picnic for labor day, that's live on c-span at 12:30 eastern time, paul ryan campaigning at east carolina university in north carolina, and we will be covering that rally as well. from politico this morning, democratic national convention 2012, i have land mines they list here and here are politico's five potential land mines facing obama and democrats as they gather in charlotte. number one, hurricane bill, bill clinton is staring in a new obama campaign tv ad, but he's made it clear in the past he doesn't take his talking points the obama campaign, he's even said so explicitly. clinton has a prime time speaking spot on wednesday

night but charlotte will be full of chances for him to freelance on camera or speak a bit too candidly about obama. that's a potential land mine number one, according to politico. potential land mine number two, rebuilding you didn't build that. and it says here republicans built a whole night in tampa about rebutting obama's you didn't build that line, democrats are putting in prime time the woman for whom obama cribbed the line, that's not the only potential trouble from elizabeth warner, democratic candidate for ted kennedy's old senate seat and womho headed the creation of the consumer financial protection bureau, the harvard law professor is a political novice who will be making her debut on the national stage and even though she'll northbound charlotte to pump up the president her main focus will be her own election prospects, the other is actual class warfare, the occupy wall street movement largely died in the public

eye after police departments particularly in new york forced them to abandon the public spaces they had occupied, still a rag tag group of anticapitalist protestors are aiming to make noise at the democratic convention which could include protests out on the street and flare-ups on the convention floor during the main speeches. that's some of the land mines as politico sees it, and that last one was about protestors. well, here's the front page of the charlotte observer this morning, more parade than protest, as you can see, about 800 protesters poured through the streets of uptown charlotte on sunday chanting about the financial system that they say has failed the american public, and again, the headline is more parade than protestors. wednesday night at the democratic convention, elizabeth warren will be speaking, former president bill clinton will be giving the nominating speech and there's a roll call of states, and how they're going

to vote for their nominees. that's all on wednesday night from the democratic national convention in charlotte, live gavel to gavel coverage. back to your calls. president obama, 2008 voters only this morning, sticking with him in 2012. grace in memphis, tennessee, you're on the air. >> thank you so much. surely i'm sticking with the president, because i would not vote for a person who the nuns and bishop say that the budget is immoral, nor would i vote for someone who has used greed as a prime ministeris in order to get rich. i certainly am for the president and will be forever. thank you so much. host: mays in new jersey, what do you think may? caller: thank you. i voted for president obama back then. one aim was to salvage the image of the u.s. in the

world. but unfortunately, i think i was wrong, and here's the reason. his policy does not -- instills too much dependency in his citizens, and is overly tempering entitlement -- emphasis on entitlement policy, only does nothing but to discourage incentives, and without which i think this country will previously the progress -- will definitely, the progress will be stifled, and not be the leader of the world and that is ultimately the most dangerous thing for everyone. i wish everyone would wisen up and think of it. our president will make one great social services hit

that's wonderful for the poor, but besides taking care of the poor there's a lot more important things equally in the world that a world leader senior expected of. host: from the washington times this morning, is this article, democrats see bright futures for castro twins of texas. it's been a long time since any texas democrat was relevant on the stage, two decades more since ann richards and henry cisneros made their big splashes but a couple of ambitious brothers also from san antonio hope to change that next week at the party's national convention in charlotte. state representative joaquin cass ro, member of the texas house running for congress will introduce the convention's keynote speaker on tuesday, his identical twin, 37-year-old san antonio mayor julian castro. again this is in the washington times this morning ron in palmdale, california,

are you sticking with the president in 2012? caller: yes i am and the reason is very simple. if i'm going to have somebody fix social security or medicare, i have to give them credit to say whether i trust them or not, and the person is going to fix medical care and their premise was that they didn't want medicare in the first place, they didn't want social security in the first place, that's not a person i'd entrust to fix medicare. it's just very simple to me. i'm not retired, thank god, but if a person is -- they say, well, 55, they're going to cut off the person at 55, everybody below 55 will have a different program.

i started work when i was five, so the next 40 years of that work is not applied to my retirement or medicare? something is wrong with that whole premise. it's not there. a person paying into a program for 40 years, and when you get 55, you get the option of getting medicare or whatever the case may be. george bush tried the thing with social security. it failed miserably. host: ron, we're going to leave your comments, then, there. again, an extended "washington journal", all week this week. we will be on the air until 11:00, or 12:00 noon throughout the morning, and we'll be bringing you the politico play book breakfast just like we did in tampa last week, this time from charlotte. today, the chairman of the democratic national convention, mayor of los angeles, antonio villaraigosa will be the guest for

politico this morning, that will be live on c-span at about 8:30 a.m. eastern time. well, coming up a little later on the "washington journal", mark mix of the national right to work group will be here to talk about his group's views on labor in the united states, but up next is tim funk of the charlotte observer to help us put the upcoming democratic kongvention in perspective from the point of view of the city of charlotte. the "washington journal" continues in a moment.

>> for us, it's just a tool, but it's an important tool, so we use it for communications, we have, you know, 288 facebook pages with 13 million friends, we have almost 200 official twitter accounts with a couple million followers, who are using it for noun kphaeugss. but of greater consequence in my opinion is part of what we're looking at are really tough traditional foreign policy challenges, and thinking about how we can apply two of america's unique strengths, our ability to innovate and our technology and see how we can apply those to a foreign policy challenge. >> more about the use of technology in u.s. foreign policy tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> on c-span, a lot of the shows that i like watching are book tv, anything that's happening now, anything live, i'm looking for things that are -- court rulings, anything that's really what

is unfiltered. you don't want to worry about commentary, talking heads. it's unfiltered, pure. >> cody combs watches c-span on time warner cable, c-span, created in 1979, brought to you as a public service by your television provider. "washington journal" continues. >> and that is a live picture from inside the time warner table arena in downtown charlotte, north carolina, where the democratic convention will kick off beginning tomorrow. joining us now from charlotte is tim funk of the charlotte on or about. mr. funk, is the arena ready to go to the -- for the convention? >> it looks like it is. i was there friday and it looked pretty dazzling. i think they spent $7 million over seven weeks, i think, to try to make it ready for tv.

it's got a 60-foot high array of screens and all kinds of patriotic symbols and north carolina delegation is sitting right up front. we noticed that right away. host: tell us about the preparations for charlotte over the past six months, year, how long long it's been. what's the process been like? guest: well, there's a share lot host committee, which has sort of been preparing welcome parties for the delegates which happened last night. they had a big party for the press saturday night. they had like -- we had press from all over the world here, so they would like everybody to write nice things about this city that has sort of come into its own. it's the home of the biggest bank in the country, which is why we have a lot of protestors here, but it's also a really vibrant city, i think the recession has had knockdowns but it sort of has this reputation for being a can-do city that sort of

reinvents itself. it used to be a textile center, then a banking center and now it's trying to become an energy hub. you see today we're having a street fair downtown, you see all these electric cars with hookups, and so basically, they've been trying to prepare the city, clean it up, not -- not clean it up but spruce it up, and meanwhile, they also are charged with raising the money to pay for the actual convention, 36.6 million. that's been a little more difficult than i think in previous years, because the president puts this restriction on them that they could not accept any corporate cash, any money from lobbyists, and no individual contributions over $100,000. now there's lots of loopholes. they can take unlimited amounts from labor unions, they can take in kind contributions from corporations. but it's been a little tough and they won't tell us how they're doing. but everything seems excited now, and the show's on.

host: according to the bureau of labor statistics, the unemployment rate for charlotte is about 10 percent guest: right. host: when you say the largest bank, bank of america is headquartered in charlotte. do you know the employment levels, how many in charlotte are employed by b of a? guest: i don't. quite a few. forty thousand? but i don't know if that's true. i should have looked that up. hose host and the stadium where the president is -- >> guest: it's going down a little bit. host: and the president will be accepting his nomination at the bank of america stadium. carolina panthers also play there. guest: that's right. host: tim funk, when you look at downtown charlotte, is the time warner arena walkable for the delegates or the hotel spreadout, and tell us about downtown during the convention, is there a lot of fences, blocked off areas, what? guest: you know, it's one of the most impact cities i

think -- compact cities i think they've ever had for a convention, so it is walkable ordinarily. there's not maybe six, seven blocks from bank of america to time warner cable arena, where the two days of convention business will be held. there's a lot of hotels, a lot of delegates are downtown but they're also spread out in other counties nearby. so -- but they're being shuttled in every day. so i think they have it pretty easy. i think some of the locals are a little concerned about the lack of parking, there's a lot of fences, there's a lot of police presence, mostly because of the -- obviously the president is coming to town. but there's been a lot of protestors and a lot of, you know, talked-about protestors so there are several streets closed downtown or uptown, they prefer to call it, but it's okay to get around. today they're having something called the carolina tp-fpt est, bringing in james

taylor, north carolina native, to sing, and they're hoping people will comedown town, they've shortened the convention by a day to try to give the local people and north carolina voters basically a fans to feel like they're part of this convention and thursday you mentioned the acceptans speech in bank of america stadium, they've given away tens of thousands of what they call community credentials, tickets to see the president and the vice president speak, james taylor will perform, earth, wind & fire, so they're trying to make people feel part of it and not have it be four days of speeches inside of a small convention hall. host: tim funk for the next couple of days, if we hear the term "uptown" that means downtown. does that mean downtown charlotte? guest: yes, sir. host: why is that? guest: i think it's the chamber of chamber of commerce thing, probably. when i moved to charlotte in 1990, it was not a very appetizing downtown. that is to say there wasn't a lot to do, it was kind of

closed up at 5:00. now it's really quite different. i mean, a lot of people live downtown, we have great restaurants, we have opened recently some great museums, and i think people will be agreesd -- will be impressed by up town now. it probably earns the name. but it's a way to -- it's on a hill, i believe. maybe that's part of it. host: and mayor anthony fox will be a guest on this program attorney, the youngest mayor of charlotte, the population of charlotte in 2012, about 750,000. 32 percent increase in population over the past 10 years or so. the front page of your newspaper this morning, tim funk, more parade than protest. were you out at the protest yesterday? guest: i was a little bit. i saw -- there were probably more police than protestors, to be honest with you. i saw little ate before it and there was a lot of antiwar protestors and

antibank of america protestors, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves to a degree. there was a lot of singing and banging of drums and things like that. as far as i could tell, there was no confrontation with the police. but like i said, there was an overwhelming police presence, so there were more police than protestors. host: also on the front page of your paper, is this item, north carolina poll leans to romney. is mitt romney ahead in north carolina right now? guest: well, i think most polls actually recently have said it's pretty much even. this is the elan university poll, and the charlotte observer and raleigh news observer have cosponsored and i think it detected a little bump for romney out of the convention. i think it's 47-43 percent for romney. now, there's another poll that came out last night, the public policy poll out of raleigh, north carolina and it had it 48-48, and cnn did

a poll last week, cnn-time magazine which had 48 for romney, 47 for obama. so i think most people think that it's, either side, it's a tossup at this point. hose host 202 is the area code if you would like to talk to tim funk of the charlotte observer, 737-ooo1 for democrats, 737-ooo2 for republicans, please allow 30 days between your calls. the democratic convention, that's a live picture from the time warner cable arena hall, downtown charlotte, where the convention will be held. first call for tim funk of the charlotte on or about. this comes from russellville, alicia, you're on c-span. caller: hi. i wanted to welcome mr. funk to the show. guest: thank you.

caller: i've enjoyed his comments so far. i wanted to bring something to the attention of people, and it's what my mother told me when i was about five years old, and i ask what is the difference between the republicans and the democrats, because it would seem to be important, and i wanted to know, and so she said that the republicans are for the very rich people, and stand for them, and the democrats are for everybody else, and the workers and the people that are just on the street, everybody you see, the democrats stand up for them, and i found that to be true, watching both voting records throughout the years, and who's voting for what and supporting what, and i want the viewers to know not only is it important to support the president in this important election, but also,

to, as much as you can, stay with the party line, because they want to know why hasn't he done anything. well, he did. until the blocking came in and that's what the republicans are there for is to block, block, block, and we're dealing with the really important issues, like global warming, and we need sustainable energy that's green, they want to block anything to do with that. >> host: host ahr-rba -- aliciai think we've got good points there. mr. funk. caller: it's interesting you mentioned working people, north carolina is a right to work state so there are a lot of labor leaders who are traditional allies with the democratic party who were not at all pleased they picked charlotte because of the right to work status. many of them are boycotting this convention. you know, they usually have -- i think they gave $8 million to the effort in denver. it may be half that this time.

also, i think obama will have to answer this week to a lot of north carolinians about the unemployment rate here, it's 9.6% in the state, which is one of the highest in the country and 10 percent in charlotte. so i do think there's a lot of excitement here, but there are people who want to hear what the president plans to do. .

re-election bid is dependent on performance. obama has not performed. so we will vote for romney, someone who will perform. if an employer promises their employee that will climb a 40- foot pole and cannot do it, there will lose their job. host: any comment? guest: you hear, it took awhile to get into this mess and it will take awhile to get out. i think there will also say that

mitt romney does not have any new ideas, that pretty much would recycle the bush program of tax cuts and cuts to regulation. i think they may be would have an argument with the caller, but i hear what he says from a lot people here, too. host: and here is the front of a paper from north carolina as the democratic national convention begins. you can see a picture here of the inside of the arena with workers polishing off some of the last minute details for the convention. kentucky is our next town, independent line. caller: how are you? i will repeat the last caller's initial statement, thanks for c-

span. i voted for obama in 2008. i am a transplant to kentucky from atlanta. i have a perspective on larger cities, the larger state versus a smaller area where i am retired and live now. i started paying attention over the last three and half years like never before in my life. one of the things i can realize is as i watched more and more c- span, i would see what is happening and what was said on the floor of the house and the senate, and then i would watch various news programs. cnn, msnbc, fox news channel. and what was said predominately on what i guess we're calling

nowadays the mainstream media, the facts of what were said in the halls of congress were not what was being recorded accurately on this media and newspapers. it was definitely a slant toward the ultra liberal. a lot of people in my family were old-time democrats. host: i am going to ask you to wrap this up and make a final comment. caller: there is a lot of misleading right now in the media. i advise people to watch a lot more c-span and see what is being said versus what is being reported. host: and we move to virginia, democrat line. caller: how are you today?

host: go ahead with your comment or question. caller: i wonder how you find hope and our political system we have callers like you just had that are clearly [unintelligible] not understanding what is being done. you have this obstruction from the senate and house republicans and they have totally taken over the system and a way to block obama, but it is really people that have blocked obama. they do not fight to find out the facts and more or try to get the real news stories. i wonder if this would be the end of america, people turning into glenn beck and making these ultra right-wing

conservative shows, getting knowledge that is totally untrue and they do not care. host: any comment? guest: i think you see one -- see people on one side of the other seeking out tv or radio or other media that will sort of confirm what they believe. a lot of conservatives tend to watch fox news. people on the other side tend to watch msnbc. i think there is a need for somebody, i guess you could call it the mainstream media, where we at least check things out and try to represent both sides. what is exciting about north carolina, right now, for example, you ask where i find hope. for much of its history, north carolina was a one-party state, first democrats and republicans in terms of national voting. i think it has become a purple state as more and more people

move in, you find seven states like virginia, florida, and north carolina -- southern states like virginia, florida, and north carolina are becoming much more liberal. the obama campaign, at his convention is kind of name. they are using it as the campaign organizing tool, trying to get as many voters involved to sort of energized them. as i told to, 48-48 is the last poll. there are not too many undecided voters in north carolina, so it could depend on who gets the people out on election day and election -- energizing them. host: when president obama 1 -- prior to that, it was jimmy carter who won in 1976? caller: yes. no republican since dwight eisenhower has won the white

house and lost north carolina. this is a must win state for mitt romney. four years ago, i think john mccain took it for granted and was surprised at the last minute. i think obama only one by 0.3%. with the high unemployment, it could be harder for him. oft: here's the front page "the charlotte observer." who owns it? caller: mcclatchy, a company out of sacramento, california. host: our republican line. i want to tell you in san francisco, we had a man named jim for years who was fabulous and such a gentleman. i think the people of north carolina must be superb.

i hope your convention will be as good as the republicans because when i hear the lineup, it is the old fogeys from the democrat party. even barney frank to give is the fannie mae financial debacle, you know, when they did away with glass-steagall. but the democrats, i just think president bush -- i'm sorry, president obama has spent $29 billion for outsourcing ricky give a for cars in finland and solar power in china. i don't like the fact that he spoke to the russian communist and ask if he was reelected -- after reelected, he would do something about star wars, in so i hope the american people

take these things into account and realize that romney after this convention showed us what kind of a very trustworthy and compassionate man he is, but also very knowledgeable internationally and in business and given people thousands of jobs. host: we will leave it there. mr. funk? guest: the republicans have their rapid response team in charlotte. they rented some space near the nascar holophane. they are supposed to be bringing in marco rubio, the governor of south carolina, and others to sort of give their version of the day's message. one thing i think he will see at this convention, as you saw in tampa, is a lot of women at the podium. i think that is one of voting group both sides are vying for. i think the republicans are

concerned about the huge gender gap. the democrats still have a larger legions of women. i think you'll see even more women at the podium in charlotte. host: tim funk, where is the nascar hall of fame, and what about the importance of the so- called nascar voters? guest: it isn't uptown charlotte, a couple of blocks from where we sit. the nascar voters tend to be conservative. it was interesting, today is labor day and initially, the democratic or the host committee for charlotte was going to have a big celebration out at the charlotte motor speedway, which is a bit of a hike from here and would require a lot of shuttling. at the last minute, they decided

to have the uptown. they even had a car, the host committee, a nascar stock car and asked small donors to send and $5 or more and to get their name stenciled on the car. it was a nice car, but i have not seen it since. i think the effort to woo the nascar voter is probably not one to come to fruition as much as hoped. it tends to go republican. although, democrats are talking about how rich mitt romney is and trying to make him seem out of touch with the working class people of this state and other states, so there could be some competition. host: what are you personally looking forward to this week? guest: there are 15,000 allegedly press people in town, so i'm try to find something that nobody else is write-in, which is difficult. but i am going to be looking at how the city handles this thing.

i will spend some time with hopefully the head of the democratic national campaign convention committee, spent some time with dr. dan murray, in charge of the host committee. but i would also like to spend some time with the been a campaign from chicago -- if you're listening, david axelrod, i would love to hang out with you and see your war room and things like that. i think also interesting, looking at how much money is being raised. there are so many members of congress and other candidates coming to town. it is kind of like an atm machine, charlotte, this week. elizabeth warren, i think she's having to fundraisers at the mint museum. there is one convention on tv and another one on the ground with a lot of parties, fundraising, protests, and things like that. host: how many delegates? guest: i think a little less

than 6000, which is twice the number in tampa. host: about three times, actually. there are about 2100 delegates in tampa and about 2100 or so alternates. guest: there are 5000 x but almost 6000. host: independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i hope the american people wake up and choose the right president. i have not made up my mind yet because i hear too many lies coming out of all of them. when the republicans started out, when obama was elected president, they started out to make him a one-term president. they have done everything in the world to keep him from accomplishing anything. i don't know which one to vote for because they both lie so

much and all the other politicians lie so much. you cannot trust them. thank you, and i will take the -- his explanation and hang up. host: tim funk? guest: president obama's favorability ratings could be higher, but sometimes we forget that congress has a record low, it was in single digits at some point, summit romney's choice in paul ryan has given the democrats i think a weapon to use to try to say mitt romney would not stand up to the tea party-controlled house. so i think you'll hear a lot of that. paul ryan is a north carolina today in green bell at east carolina university, energizing a lot of north carolina conservatives. we talk about trying to get your

space excited so it will turn out. i think it plays both sides. i think the conservatives think mitt romney -- they can finally get excited about him because of paul ryan. the democrats like that choice because they can try to say mitt romney captive to the unpopular congress. democratic. host: will the republicans be in place in charlotte throughout the week? guest: they will. every day, there's a bust of a press conference. the chairman is here today. marco rubio from florida is supposed to be here, nikki haley, the governor of south carolina. rubio is the senator from florida. they are supposed to be here. they are supposed to have daily news conferences and we will cover those, too. host: another city in north

carolina, fayetteville, at the front page of their paper. the next call comes from fairville. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i need to remind mr. funk that they talk their swing of how they're going to vote, i'm talking about the reporters, because from day one, nobody is reporting that ryan met with a group of republicans to say this is a one-term president. then they go down to the house and the floor of the senate and repeat the same thing over and over. i watched c-span and i watched the news all the time. you are not reporting why this president could not do his job. you are not reporting about the obstruction about not letting

bills come out of the senate. you are just reporting your swing. i think it's a news reporter is reporting, you got to put down the fire and report the total story. host: mr. funk? guest: wow. i think she speaks for a lot of people who think the environment in washington is toxic. i think there has been a lot of reporting about that. there tends to be -- we tried to present both sides, and that may come across to some as not blaming one side or the other. mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader did say early on publicly that his number one goal was to make president obama a one-term president, which is something the democrats probably said about president bush but not publicly. i am not sure that was a smart move. we live in a partisan two-party

system, so there is going to be a lot of that. i think there is a lot of frustration that nothing is getting done in washington, and people blame the media for not getting the story, the republicans, blame the democrats. i think there has been a lot of reporting about how some bills that the republicans had been for, now they are against because president obama had embraced it. you can find examples on the democrat side as well. i hate to be where she washing, but it is true. it is not black and white. host: tim funk spent four years covering washington and john edwards has been in the national spotlight for quite awhile. are there still john edwards fans and north carolina? guest: not too many. i don't think so. he is very unpopular.

i think part of it is because people had so much hope in him. when i covered him, he was from a small town, his family was always with him, and now there is this sense that was all a fake and he was sort of a disciplined and i covered him in 2004 when he was -- when my father was a mill worker. i am from a small town and a moderate southern democrat, and i will never criticize my fellow democrats. in 2008, he figured out like a trial lawyer, "how can i win this thing?" he moved to the left, criticized his opponents. everything he stood for into the floor -- 2004, he ditched in 2008. he inspired a lot of people. there is a lot loved for elizabeth edwards, even though i think she was also very ambitious.

but i think the sense of the trail of the voters and elizabeth edwards will be hard for him to live down. nobody really wants to see him around. he is not here, i can tell you that. host: charlotte also used to be home to jim and tammy faye bake r. it was a regular stop for politicians? guest: it is actually down the road. but in his prime, if you're a republican conservative party in the evangelical vote for the picasso but, in the 1980's -- or pentecostal vote, in the 1980's, that is where you went to talk about great falls, and yet had a lot in north carolina and south carolina. host: florida, republican line. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: this is my first time

ever calling. i probably will get nervous. anyway, i am very concerned with this election. i come from a communist country. i know people want to refuse that obama has any threat to this country and leaning toward socialism and communism, but i know differently. i am very, very concerned he is not following with his country is all about. people are running away from their countries to come to america to find what obama wants io implement is different -- do not want cuba here in america. am concerned with the inefficiency of government, with the bloated bureaucracy, with what he said about government control of industry. he took over gm, it all the money to the unions, and bypass the bondholders. that has never been done in america.

i am concerned about the civil wars who is talking about when he was running. that reminds me of castro's cuba. am concerned about the stars that are concerned about communists. also, about him bypassing congress and concerned about the department of justice. the department of justice is a travesty in this country. look what happened with fast and furious. the facts have not come out. some of the mainstream media refuses to talk about fast and furious. they just ignored when things were happening. i am very concerned about all of the money being spent. host: i think we got your point. mr. funk? guest: i hear a lot of people call president obama a socialist.

but then i talked to the liberals, and they are also disappointed in the president. they do not think he is far enough to the left. i think he is probably more of a centrist than anything on most issues. the right things used to left, the left thinks he is too right. i guess that is where i see it, probably in the middle somewhere on most issues. that is a disappointment to the left and -- i hear this socialism think all the time. i saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that said "he saved our jobs, he saved our industry." she was an auto worker. i think people were scared about what he did with the auto industry, but a lot of other people thank him for saving their job in the industry. there are views on both sides. host: and mary anthony foxx is a

democrat? and the congresswoman -- guest: we have a couple of members of congress. sue is from here, also mel watt. he represents uptown charlotte. he will be welcoming delegates. his district sort of snakes up to greensboro along i-85, i think it is. then we also have a third congressman, larry qassam, a conservative democrat, skipping the convention. we have several members. host: why is he skipping the convention if he represents the area? guest: he voted against president, in his health-care plan. he is in a district, especially

after reapportioning of the legislature, is much more republican than a used to be. he is trying to save his seat by putting some distance between him and the president. even though he could almost walk to the convention -- it would be a long walk, but he is skipping and. so are other congressmen. these are blue dog democrats who tend to not be with the rank- and-file democrats on a lot of issues. host: independent line, seattle. a few more minutes before the playbook breakfast begins. every morning this trip, political will be hosting a breakfast in charlotte at packard palace. are you familiar with that, tim funk? guest: i am not familiar, but it is supposed to be a nice place. it is also uptown. it is supposed to be pretty dazzling.

host: it is called packard place. we will be covering that live as we did in tampa. go ahead, caller. caller: i want to talk about the lies about president obama stealing $716 billion from medicare for his affordable health care act. like the healthcare system right now, has been ripping off people, young people, that cannot afford it. they make hundreds of millions of dollars off young and sick people. i think they feel like they are being ripped off because they think money they take from the young people belongs in their

pocket. host: any response? guest: i went to a rally yesterday for the national women's political caucus. they have talked or are talking about medicare and medicaid in addition to the women's issues and the ryan plan in st. it would hurt women. that women and nursing homes will be kicked out on the street because that medicaid funding. i think two-thirds of the people on medicaid are women. it is interesting how these issues are becoming part of the campaign. people are sort of using them. we might hear a lot about that this week. host: democrat, kansas. caller: thank you for c-span for taking my call but i was disconnected once before. i am a preacher and vietnam veteran. seeing the people very much

misled like woman ago, i want to ask mr. funk a question, how north carolina is quinn to handle the backlash they're going to get from people like rush limbaugh and the rest of them? i hope they can handle it all. host: 15 seconds. guest: i think the people who watch rush limbaugh will talk about it, and i think the people in charlotte will be too busy to talk about it. host: we have to leave it there, tim funk, thank you for being on "the "washington journal." the political playbook breakfast is just beginning in charlotte, north carolina. >> please welcome chief white house correspondent mike allen. [applause] >> welcome to charlotte, we're so excited to have been here for the debut event in the politico

hub. reddit great time in our have in tampa, and we miraculously transported up here and we are excited to have you here. we will be doing three events a day here, several live broadcasts and at night, it turns into the politico lounge. we hope some if you will join us to celebrate. we're kicking off a daily convention playbook breakfast. first we will have some fun with the first presidential videographer who was behind the scenes with barack obama when he went from becoming senator obama to president obama. and then we have the chairman of this convention, the l.a. mayor. we are excited to talk to the chairman. before we bring out arun, thank

you to "the charlotte observer" our partners here. they have fantastic coverage in the run up to this. we are excited to be partnering with them and sharing content with them throughouthe convention. also are thrilled to thank team bank of america for supporting these conversations here on their own turf. they have supported the playbook breakfast back in d.c. and tampa, and now excited to have them here. the director of public policy will welcome us. jim, thank you for having us. >> welcome to charlotte. i want to welcome everyone on behalf of bank of america. we have over 15,000 employees working here. we are proud of our civic leadership here in charlotte. we're delighted to be cosponsoring this morning with the charlotte observer.

the publisher is here. we had a great week last week in tampa. mike and the political team pull together the leading political figures and newsmakers each morning and engaged in thoughtful, substantive dialogue each morning. we're looking forward to the same thing here in charlotte this week. that is the essence of why bank of america is involved, because the politico team takes difficult issues we're facing as a country, getting be on the slogans and 30-second sound bites, and get some thoughtful dialogue going as we really tackle some difficult issues this country is facing. we are proud to be a part of this. we welcome the politico team to charlotte. [applause] >> thank you for the welcome and your great journalism. i want to welcome arun. [applause]

by the end of the night when we

were pre taping his practice speech, i was the only one left. i got stuck at his gate. i do not have the podium credentials. i could not follow it all. >> the greek columns for your idea? >> i made them myself, in fact. [laughter] >> you were there. did anyone think, this is not a good idea? >> i did not think about. i was so used to these big speeches. i was always the guy back by the port-o-potties backstage. i did not look around like, this is not my said. you know, my said is the corridors in the back of the stadium where the president is holed. that is more where i would say was where my meat and potatoes was. >> the president did an

education speech in philly and you had never talked to him? >> i had not met him. i had not even interact with the campaign much except for some to say, your the only, so do not mess this up. a great day. it was a national education association and candidates were making speeches. the president said, my teacher is a -- a sister is a teacher. hillary clinton said, my mother was a teacher. joe biden said, "i sleep with the teacher almost every night." i thought, i really hope joe biden is to be the vice- presidential nominee for senator obama. >> so did we. excellent. we have a clip here. [video clip] >> why are you filming me now?

>> no matter what happens, our children still love us. that is the key. >> and the white house briefing room. >> this is a collection. [video clip] have you met john? just don't trip. with every do, don't trip. trip.tever you do, don't ok, i am not going to make a fool of myself?

[laughter] >> i want to call my mom. >> leave a message. >> hi, mom. >> by name is -- please call the white house. [laughter] you see how lebron may be the best player. >> [unintelligible] >> he lost because boston was a better team. come on, man. oh!

get one't think he will in the water. >> just before i go on -- keep it up. i am proud of you. i like that. [inaudible] can i press the button? >> press the orange one. >> good job, national security team. get back to work. >> of course that is from many, many, many hours of much less interesting, much less fun footage. that is part of what i was able to do, captured authentic

backstage for trail of a man -- portrayal of a man similar off camera as on camera. >> how often does he say, "give me some space"? >> very rarely. and easily had to beat in regard to restroom break. there were a few instances in which other people were like, "i think we should not film this." both times were not because we were worried about getting the president saying something i'm, particularly, the people in the room wanted to make sure other people would react in a way that would be honest. he is used in the filming all the time. let's say he is trying to make a point to someone, they may give less frank advise if there on my camera. i tried to keep a sense of when it was ok and wasn't o.k. to film based on that verse is the

president's comfort. >> you yourself are not an aggressive documentary maker? >> i am not someone who works very hard to be anonymous or behind the scenes or a fly on the wall. i am kind of a chatterbox and loudmouth. with the soccer in coming years as a "oh, come one" which is me. i think that helps me do what i was going to do, because to be this kind of anonymous, working, camera documentary person is one thing, to be honest and speaking with everyone in the room lets them see where i'm coming from and know what i am doing. >> how to there, to be a campaign the darker fur? >> from the very get go the campaign had a group together from people than in chicago.

they sort it expanded it i think, they wanted -- not knowing exactly what it was going to do. i think it became apparent that documenting the campaign trail was going to be the most useful thing for a campaign, which is a little hard to hear as a guy coming from a film school arts background. >> in 2008, where were they putting these clips? how quickly to they turn them around? >> pretty quickly. this was during the days of standard definition. we were shooting things on tape. it would take as long as the speech to up load and we could not really compete with television stations, but we started learning tricks and to get things up on youtube as fast as possible.

>> you talk about how the president has a unique ability to be the sand off camera that he is on, that his sort of the opposite of a ham. >> i think that is right. his very kosher. [laughter] >> this is a risky proposition. there's no way president bachmann would have a videographer. in think, sure, let the kid follow him around. it shows the amount of trust and understanding that the president has a very unique to permit a personality and 100% the same on and off camera. people ask, "is he like that?" you can see it in the still

photographs as well. and the president and first lady are touching foreheads and surrounded by secret service. that is just what you see. there are many photographers surrounding him. >> got a good shot. >> he is able to create the sense of private space. another example was in the convention last year. we were in kansas city where the president was watching his wife make her speech. even though we were in this room full of reporters and it was not necessarily the most private moment, every time he watched her speak, he would unconsciously play with his wedding ring. we're very attuned to him and we were immediately noticing that and zoomed in on and made for a wonderful video clip. >> the other side of the coin is he is boring behind-the- scenes. he is just there. >> i think people are wanting

this access. i'm not sure they know what they're asking for access to. photograph in hundreds of meetings there almost identical. when you are around for a while, you realize the things most interesting are not necessarily all the way backstage, but halfway back stage, that moment between public and private or just before a speech or in between having to greet the teacher of the year and maybe a family who has a soldier who has fallen in afghanistan. being able to switch between those things and watch some have that emotional intelligence i think is worthy action actually is. >> why is that better than backstage? >> i think it is more telling to watch the body language of the president reading someone in the outer oval office and what that means and how they shake hands -- greeting someone in the outer oval office and what that means and how they shake hands, for something that is probably

scripted to begin with. if something was easy to solve, it would not make it all the way to the president's desk. >> tell something about barack obama we do not know. >> he is an intensely curious person. i think it is one of the most useful things about backstage. he is very much like a dad or even when you know something, he wants to know one more thing and how you know that. ferry dad-like -- very dad-like. we are in eastern europe and hosting a dinner or something and the leaders were coming in. one guy from -- i'm going to mess this up, had a name of ethnicity from another country. i said, that is interesting. why? what you mean? tell me about that. >> he has an incredible mind and

wants to know and learn things. >> were you free to talk to him or was it a speak when spoken to thing? >> it depends the situation. winning is performing official duties, i will not hike up. he is very approachable on a plane. i think we worry more on our side by not wasting his time because he's so gracious with his time. i write about a funny moment where stephen colbert snack one of his books into the library at the white house, which is a big no-no. i let him do it because i was filming i thought, this is great for the movie. i hustled down the hall and i'm like, "mr. president, stephen colbert left a library in the book if you want it." it was confusion. it was like, "what do you mean

quest bergdahl we have good security?" it went back and forth before it was shut down. he was like, "go get the book, stop talking to him about the book, go back to the oval office." >> [unintelligible] >> reggie love, former body man for the president. >> what was your vibe about him having you there? >> at first, it was tolerance. but you become work buddies. like a said, i was never totally behind the scenes. i was kind of interacting with folks. we definitely had a work friendship. >> we would love to bring you into the conversation, so signal if you have a question and we will bring you a microphone. you have been in the carpet what is it like?

>> i had only been in the car once. the car is exactly what you think it is. those doors are hard to close. [laughter] they got people for that. >> what else could you see? can you see the gas masks? what is it like? they are there. >> there is a wonderful video that spike jones it without war were he shows of all the gas masks and things like that. i did not see that. it is definitely all that and more is in there. the car is a small bubble, the helicopter is a pretty small bubble. air force one is bigger. the elevator is the hardest one. he has to get in there, secret service has to get in there, immediate staff has to get in there, the video that almost

makes the cut. i was a 25% you make the cut. but i am the one who wants the shot of him coming off the elevator. so it involves running up a lot of steps. this can definitely, definitely weren't injury, hazards. >> some people do not like to be on -- your like this close, to close. did you shoot on marine one customer puts yes, the best thing is not shooting inside. you fly so close to the washington monument. let's say i rode in marine won a dozen times. each time i was trying to get that shot right. slow motion, not slow-motion. i really wanted to get it right. i'm happy to say in the archives, there's a beautiful, beautiful flyby of the washington monument.

once he was asking about computers, i was trying to explain, and it was too noisy. it can be confusing. >> what about the plane? >> it is great. >> there is a but coming. >> it is a flying office. yet no excuse to not be working. i cannot upload to youtube. there is no power on the plane. an air force one, your info communication the whole time, so there is no reason not to work. it is designed to keep the president working along with his staff. >> we have a question. yes, sir? go ahead. >> adam bell, "charlotte observer." is there anything you shot that

later they said you could not use? >> i not allowed to erase anything. every scrap igoes into the archives and will go into a library. more than that, i think we're try to make it more useful. video search is hard to figure out. i think if the archives can be searchable, it will be a lot more useful to historians. >> yes, ma'am. >> the president was here in 2008 on election eve, were you with him? >> i believe that was the day the president's grandmother passed away. wow, it was sort of a -- it was a solemn day for sure. for us, it was one of those moments where the president did cry a little bit remembering her it was like, well, this is real and authentic, but is is

something we will highlight? we decided not to use it. we decided to show it like we always showed any other speech, just the one had on shot. it does sort of play that thing in politics, this vicarial larry, is this too horrible to be real? >> you can tweet us questions. >> i am with fox global. i'm curious if any of your friends of the white house communications office got involved and a little review of the book before it came out? >> no, no one had seen the book. a couple of days before it came out -- i got mine pack, so i did leave them with my white house

friends, but everyone was gone. people came back from the weekend and there will have the book waiting for them. >> and you gave one to the boss? >> i gave one to the boss, whom i doubt has had a chance to read it. i did also give it to folks in the outer wall office. add that when they start quoting things from the book to him, he will then be like "i am going to read it wrote >>." he is such a gracious reader, he could publish it off in a few hours. >> [unintelligible] >> they had them all kinds of things. >> but what was his habit on the campaign trail? >> he would be constantly reading stacks of papers, briefings, and a lot of nonfiction history. >> and the politico the book that just came out, and a store

on the front page of today's "new york times," talking about the president as a competitor. everything from cars to basketball. you probably saw him this way a lot. >> he is a very competitive person. a lot of it is his athleticism, but also the way he thinks. an athlete. of i know looking at a your thinking, "this guy can tear it up." it is not the case i did get a chance to play cards and games with him sometimes. it is not just that he is competitive, he is very smart competitor. he plays games smartly. he reprimanded me playing poker once because i did something that i was not sure what would happen. he was like, you're just gambling, not playing the game. it was true. it was advised that took seriously.

you should be aware when you're just gambling. >> how did that reflect the way he runs the world? >> an think a lot of times, when you're on the outside and watching the debate say health care or something, you have these visions of view, the lone wolf, takes care of things and makes this great stand or all these things, and it is this narrative that is not accurate to the world. it is not how the "game" is played and results are achieved. it may not be as sexy as putting it all in read and seen what happens, but that is not the man we elected. >> how do you think he sees himself? >> i think he sees himself as somebody who likes to hold things together and pull things together, and i think shocked at the disparity between that and i guess the people you sought the rnc, the people who are trying to portray him as something much

different. that seems so counterintuitive to knowing him. >> do you feel if we take people's impression of him from the media, do you think if we had -- if we add up, do you feel we get this president or not? >> i think the american people get this president. i meant that is why his numbers are stubbornly good. >> sterley ok. >> sterley ok, despite the challenges to the economy. like i said before, is he really liked that question but they know what "like that" is. i think that is very much fundamentally who -- a function of who he is. i don't know the functions in terms of being a better president, but greg governing

things, but it is something that is important to the american people to latch onto and to get an idea, especially in these times when we are not sure how our government is functioning. >> one question you grapple with in your book is the fact you are a competitor. when their campaign, white house figures come in the past, people would have to come to politico stock, or c-span out or to see those videos, and now they can go to whtiehouse.gove. >> i think the most important thing is to provide context of some comes in to watch videos. videos are a horrible way to communicate. it evokes a feeling. if you want people to learn something, it is better that those things are just written and a list next to the video to be looked at later. i think the video -- the venue is just as important it is not

just the tv screen, but contextual information. i do not see a problem with people putting out their own point of view in their own platform as long as we do not rely on any one source of information. i think would be horrible if the press were replaced with nothing but west wing week. >> not on your colleagues would agree. >> i think he ought to have room for both. at first, the press was so apprehensive that what i was doing. but quickly into it, started incorporating it into their broadcast. >> last question for you. what platform is next? text message, campaign, the twitter campaign? what do you see rising or what d.c. changing even in this cycle? >> i'm just trying to get a handle on this now, but i think the 30-second ad is becoming too

expensive. like if mitt you just get this residual diminishing return. that being said, we will see more 15-second ads. these are the only things in your life now that you cannot get rid of. the 30-second ad, you are trained to turn the tv off. it is between two pandora songs, before the cat a video you want to see. it is the last way we can guarantee 15 seconds of your time. you will see that happen more. >> you will be 37 on election

day, you are having a second kid. you are working on the outside spending area. >> i'm working at an online strategy communications firm, and we have all kinds of progress of clients, like the unions, the naacp. i am making videos for them. same side of things, but the one thing that my videos no longer a star is the barack obama. >> does the president have a nickname for you? >> he calls me funnyman on occasion, because of my sense of humor. >> thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for taking us behind the scenes, behind the lens. if you are out there on livestream land, c-span, please

hit us with questions. we are pleased to welcome the chairman of the democratic national committee, los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa. mr. mayor? [applause] thank you for coming in. telling the mayor last night at a dinner that was in his honor -- l.a. democratic party. i was up way past my bedtime, and they had not serve appetizers yet. >> i left way past your bedtime as well it could to be here with you. >> mr. mayor, what will people know about barack obama after this convention that they don't know now? >> actually, i think people know a lot about president obama. i think what we will do is

remind them what he has d one, what he has done to put us in a better place today than four years ago, what he has done to stop the hemorrhaging of it und jobs a month -- of 800,000 jobs a month when he took office, 3.5 million jobs over a six-month period of time prior to his inauguration, what he has done to stave off -- stop the hemorrhaging with foreclosures, to save the auto industry, to turn gm from a bankrupt company to be leading on the manufacturer -- the leading auto manufacturer in the world. to tell the story of the last four years -- 29 consecutive months of the private sector job growth, more than in the eight

years before. and, you know, there will be other stories -- a great family man, a man who loves his wife and children, someone who cares about the middle class there that is some of what we will be talking about, i guess. >> what will we see as you all levele leadership w conceived the convention -- what are you trying to do that is different? >> we want this to be the most open and accessible convention, the most diverse. st upwards of 6000 delegate -- 4000 or so, 4400 -- we are

still burning working men and women -- we are celebrating working men and women on labor day. i think at the stadium, what you will see is people from every walk of life. not just the delegates -- there is only 6000 of them. you will see people from every corner of the earth to have come to this great country. i think it will also be working convention, very differently than the one in tampa in this sense. we understand that we will get outspent, with super pacs. what we have done is invested in the most comprehensive ever to get out the vote in our history. and we are recruiting people. in denver we recorded about 25,000 volunteers -- we

recruited about 25,000 volunteers. we expect to do that multiple times. >> when you talk about recruiting, you're talking a lot collecting data -- >> knocking on doors, getting people to pick up the phone and contribute, getting people to do what it takes to get people out to vote. >> labor day -- your roots are in the labor movement. there is a story on the front page of "the boston globe" today about unions being down. there has been a clear trend and in that direction. they are a big part of the cash register of the democratic party. does that worry you? >> let me say something about labor. i came out of labor, as you said. i was 25 years old, an organizer

for the teachers' union. you said "muscle and cash register," but also the heart and soul. let's think about, on labor day, what made america great. we have a middle-class and they helped to move in that middle- class. they helped that spread across the board, the people who work hard, to be rewarded. yes, major constituents in our party, and yes, i think i.t. is important for us to stand up for collective bargaining rights, it is important for us to stand up for the notion that people work hard and ought to be rewarded for it. >> but membership is going down.

what do you do about that? >> i think you -- well, i'm not in the labor movement and mymore -- >> but as a leader of the democratic party, you affect each other. >> they do. but i think you organize, frankly. there are major efforts in organizing members. you have to put this on new markets -- have to focus on new see them take'll on technology, changes in an industry, and the opportunity will come going into those new

markets. >> so the unions themselves should be more creative? >> i think many of them are being more creative. wisconsin,nest -- people are trying to break unions. california, with prop 32, pretends to be an effort to stop a big money from special interests, and it is only focused on labor. it does not impact the super pacs or corporate america. let me say something about all that. i am the mayor of the second- largest city in the country, and as you probably know, i've had my own challenges -- of course you know, because you know everything. i've had my own challenges, and

i a visit to public sector unions that we have to understand in these tough budget times that to protect your quality of life and benefits going in the future, we have got to work together to redefine benefits that we have, to make sure that they are sustainable going into the future. i'm a big supporter of pension reform. gov. christie -- republican governor, and i'm a democrat -- his speech -- >> chris christie? >> he did not talk about his candidate very often. he talks a lot about pension reform. they went from 70% employee contribution to 5% increase for

seven years. i went from 6 to 11 permanently, and i'm proposing that we tied the retirement age to 67, and i say that because there was a we lived to 65, 70, and now we are 75 to 80 -- the president in his budget address the issue of pension reforms. but there are some democrats who are unwilling to do that, and that is a mistake. you can be pro-worker, pro- union, but also say that we have to find a balance here. that is the difference between democrats and republicans. i don't see it the republicans

taking on their interests the way that democratic leaders have done. >> public employees in general -- >> teachers in particular. every decision is driven by seniority. we can on our teachers and pay them more -- can honor our teachers and pay them more, and we can hold people accountable. i'm not a partisan -- democrat with a small d, and i love this country, and i'm for president obama very strongly because he is charting the right path -- by the way, a centrist path, not like what you see on the other side. you read the republican party platform, you close your eyes

for a moment, and could easily be 1812, with the things that they are proposing. that is very different from us. we are party that is challenging herself. not everybody, i agree. i think we've got to do more about it. one of the reasons why it has gone too far the right. >> you are just back from enemy territory. you were at the convention in tampa. you had as city hall at cnn grill. >> they called me the skunk at the party. [laughter] the first thing i said, i meant that, because it is true -- i know you expect me to come after the republicans, but we are in

the middle of a growing hurricane. as much as the one to criticize one another, let's be clear about this -- democrats and republicans agree on this, that priority number one is the health and safety of the people in that hurricane. we don't talk a lot about the fact that mary landrieu, a democrat, was working with bobby jindal, a republican, who was working with president obama barre seamlessly to protect the health and safety. we led the fight, but we also got to acknowledge that there is a lot of places where there is common area, working together. but i was there to compare and contrast, and i did. they will be here as well, and we welcome them.

i used to be chair in spanish of the democratic party convention, as speaker of the california state assembly -- [speaking spanish] i was speaking spanish for a second, even though my first language is english. when i was speaker of the california assembly, i put democrats and republicans together. i had to have a caucus in my party after i announced it, because the democrats did not like it. the republicans got up and excoriated me because they said we were trying to spy on them. maybe you'll figure out that you have something in common, that your kids go to the soccer game, that you went to a town hall and not screamed at -- got screamed

at. we have challenges in our districts, our state, where we can find common ground. there were a lot of republicans there from california that i know that our friends -- that were friends. you can disagree without being disagreeable. >> how quickly did the seating arrangements go back to the old way? >> actually, i think an they have kept them. >> that is pretty remarkable. >> what they have not done is this -- i gave for the first time republicans proportionality of our resources. every committee had a vice chair. the speaker appoints eight.

i let the minority leader do that. the biggest challenge is to get a budget, so you guys can get on the floor and beat me up, but your job is, like my job is, let's get a budget to another. you will find me with seven people who give me a 2/3 vote, because in california you need a 2/3 vote -- you used to needed until last year -- and it was the only state in the country were neede -- and you need a 2/30 vote for taxes. it was the only state and in the country where you needed at both. >> what would it take to get the country in that direction? >> i think it will take a republican defeat. >> you had a republican defeat in 2008. >> the politics of no doesn't

work. i understood on the inauguratio -- i understood not on inauguration day, but a few days after, that they got together and said to block everything the president proposes. mitch mcconnell said, "my job is to defeat president." if you listen to norman and of the american enterprise institute, no -- it is broken on both sides -- i agree -- but it is more broken on the right -- i agree as well. sequestration is an area where they have to -- >> automatic budget cuts. >> and area where they can and should do that.

and the outgoing conference -- i got the conference of mayors. the difference between mares and beltway -- last year we took on the issue of nation building and the two wars, and we can not keep on building bridges in baghdad and at heart and not -- and kandahar and not build them in our cities -- >> is that the first time that mayors have had a foreign policy? resolution,t a war it is and nation-building resolution. we have to start buiinvesting in our infrastructure. we took on immigration -- unanimous, republican and democrat, and his support of comprehensive immigration reform -- in support of the

comprehensive immigration reform. simpson-bowles ought to be a framework, a template for how we .ix this guest:ry said ryan said that the president did not adopt the recommendations of his own commission. he did not say that he was on simpson-bowles and he voted against it. plan cuts of $4 trillion in spending, about the number that simpson-bowles does, and also close tax loopholes, and refuses to extend the bush tax cuts, which, by the way, people who say that we are taxing the rich -- we are taxing them to where we were under the clinton administration, where we created 23 million jobs. we took it from deficits to

surpluses and no deficit. we are taking on -- we have got to deal with the real world. by the way, please come and visit l.a. [laughter] i tell my people that if anything happens, and i have to get back and watch, i will. this is the honor of a lifetime, but understand this, i am sure because i am ma -- i am chair because i am mayor. l.a. is safer than any time since 1952. per-capita -- we are safer in .bsolute numbers since 1957 since i've been there, 41% drop in homicides, 40% drop in violent crime. i say that to say this -- there

is not a republican or democratic way to keep people safe, to pick up the trash. many of the problems in this country have to be dealt with on a bipartisan basis. i am chair of the convention, but a democrat with a small d. i believe very strongly in what i call the radical center. this is the path forward. i believe the president is moving down that path, because like a simpson-bowles, he is doing both. is it balanced. -- it is balanced. >> that is a change for you. your ribs are more clearly liberal. -- roots are more clearly liberal. beenis year -- i've against the death penalty, and i signed an anti-death penalty

initiative. i have been taking on prop 13, challenging republicans and democrats, because neither one of them want to challenge the holy grail. it is part of how we got into this mess. i am taking on pension reform, seniority, quadrupling the number of bike lanes in l.a. -- don't know if you knew that. car capital of the nation. and at an impact report to create a bike lane -- i said, come on, we can do this together. luckily, it got through the legislature, and we have got to do more of that. there are smart ways for us to move forward on a bipartisan basis. when they tuesday election, and i think it they well, they

figure out -- when they lose the election, and i think it they well, they have got to figure out how to be the party of yes. there will always be partisanship, but this the most partisan time since the civil war, and that kind of a prison ship is strangling the countr -- that kind of partisanship is strangling the country. >> we will bring you into the conversation. lloyd grove. >> speaking of your efforts to be bipartisan, last week that convention, you said that they cannot bring out someone with a spanish surname and expect to appeal to latinos. did you hear from any spanish lawmakers about that? >> the next day, george stephanopoulos asked marco

rubio what he thought of that, and his answer was, "i agree with antonio and villaraigosa, but that is true of both parties." he is right. that is true of both parties. it is not just true of latinos. i will not just vote for you because you are latino or african-american or asian- american. you vote for people based on what date and have done, what they are going to do. the notion that great speeches and having people at the convention -- the joke was that they had more people on stage and they did in the crowd --

than they did in the crowd. i heard somebody say that on tv. let's be clear, we are a much more diverse party. i am going to be keynoting the jefferson-jackson dinner in iowa -- >> that is a momentous event, probably up related to other things. -- probably a prelude to other things. >> it is and honor. it is so diverse. i went to the event -- the party for the southern states, and it was so diverse, and it was great to see that. our party is a party that will guns a broad cross-section of people. -- that welcomes a broad cross- section of people.

i agree with him, it applies as much to us as it does to them, but our policies are much more inclusive. they are for voter suppression laws, voter i.d. laws. we are for constitution that -- not putting in the constitution clauses that limit them. you did not really hear a response -- the other thing, by the way, i thought that it two best speeches of the republican convention were marco rubio, very inspiring, and susana martinez. i love clint eastwood, i respect him, he is a great actor. that was not his finest

performance. [laughter] i think it is unfair to do that to clint eastwood. they are supposed to be so organized, so scripted, we are supposed to be the managers. somebody did not manage that very well. >> how do you avoid your empty chair moment? [laughter] >> by not having empty rhetoric, by telling the truth -- >> oh, come on, let's talk about the management of the convention, let's talk about it in a literal way. >> the dinner was for a lot of the people -- some of you folks, but for the people doing the hard work. i haven ot done -- any of done i have not done any of the heavy

lifting. there are hundreds of passionate, dedicated staff members. there were thousands more volunteers who helped to make that work. i don't get any credit for it. i will get blamed -- that is what comes with these jobs, and i accept it. i think it will be managed very well. it will be difficult getting from place to place. someone asked me about the difference between the los angeles convention, boston, charlotte, andand now it felt like it went very smoothly, and it did because there is a lot of security. you need to give yourself extra time did i almost got late for

the early show on cbs. it was hard getting in. i am hoping it will go as smoothly as possible, but we will see. in an event that big, with that many moving parts, there is always something that will not go as planned. >> there are a lot of people -- the folks we will see and hear -- connect the dots for us, but casual viewers can take away from the three nights. >> i think it and will see themselves, a cross-section of america. i'm not just saying democrats -- i think americans feel good about that.

i think they will see a party -- >> help us interpret what we will be seeing, connect the dots. >> i learned something yesterday i did not know. they ask you, what's to you are wearing, because it and want to lend you in right, i thought it and -- what suit are you wearing, because they what to blind you in right, and i thought they were joking -- >> what suit? >> this is a black one. i have a blue one. when you have to travel like this, you bring two seats and may be another jacket, that is about it. blue, black. >> if you have a question, please go ahead. say who you are. >> mr. mayor, i'm from seattle,

washington. we saw governor o'malley struggling when he was asked the question of whether we are better off today. why is it so hard defining with things are? --where things are? >> i opened up knowing i was going to get past that, and yes, we are better off. we lost 3.5 million jobs, and that was the part of his speaking to, but to say something about gov. o'malley, if you listen to his full answer, he hit it out of the park. he laid out the differences that have occurred over the last four years versus the policies that got us here and the beginning of the recession.

folks focused on the no, focused -- two of its surrogates did not answer the question -- >> it is a hard question to .nswer clearly people are not better off. >> we are better off. are we where we want to be? no way. by the way, you know where the 12 million jobs and that governor romney talked about comes from? you would not know, because he is not shown you that pat. -- path. moody's analytics said that if we continue on this path, we will create 4 million jobs -- >> obama jobs. >> that is right.

we are going to move forward. we have got to do what we've done to get here. my grandpa got here 100 years ago. he came with the shirt on his back, he worked in the fields of l.a. and california. he built a small business that was very thriving, supported a middle-class life. went to a significant catholic boarding school. loses all his money in the depression. had a younger wife -- she left him. put two daughters in foster home. this was the greatest generation. the british generation suffered during the depression -- the

greatest generation suffered during the depression and sacrificed during world war ii said that we can have a better life, that we could make in investments in education, the infrastructure that would make us the envy of the world, and virtually everything that created this quality of life. we understood back then that rewarding work was important. yes, we want to create wealth, no, we don't want a nation of polar opposites. he led the country from rich and poor to our country of opportunity. i believe strongly that president obama's pat is up more along those lines than the path that says to keep on cutting taxes that we cannot afford, cut them in a way that is proportional only helps people that will even, according to most economists -- it is not enough for them, when they have

so much money, to make investments. when we cut into the middle class, the opposite is true. i believe strongly that we are better off. we will be a lot better off if we continue down this road. >> i was watching president clinton's speech on wednesday. how he embraces the president -- there is a piece in "the yonew yorker" this week the more obama talks about the clinton economy, the more clinton embraces obama. [laughter] >> i love you guys. well, first of all, the clinton years were great years. the clinton policies are the obama policies.

the bush years that clinton inherited, bush 41, were taken to the steroid level with bush 43, they don't want to tie themselves to bush, and we want to tie ourselves to clinton. >> have you not seen clinton's speech? >> i have not seen any speech. >> working on your own? >> got to do this, got to run the city. i pick up the phone, what is happening over there, what do we got to do. i just started working on my speech -- it is 1/6-minute speech, after all. -- a 6-minute speech, after all.

>> one of your hallmarks in l.a. is the half-penny sales-tax increase for transportation. you are not trying to extend it 8. what are your hopes for transportation at a time when we are not -- >> we have have any sales tax on the ballot. california needed a 2/3 vote to pass that. we have the worst traffic in the nation, and we have to start making investments in doubling the size of our rail system, public transit, repairing highways and bridges, providing investments we need to grow our economy, and infrastructure is that foundation. everybody said it was a lark. there was a lot of opposition.

but almost immediately, people said, well, it you said you are building a subway, doubling the size of the rail system. --" this was a town hall or something -- this is ahraf-pen -- "this half-penny sales-tax." why don't meet figure out a way -- i went to the congress, and said, "you have a little program underfunded, transportation is own program -- as petitio transportation zone program.

why don't you rewards cities and states that want to put up their own money that want to make these investments? you will create 1 million jobs but as everybody laughed me out. -- you will create 1 million jobs." everybody laughed me out. my paper saide there he goes again. i did not go to washington to watch it cherry blossoms bloom. i brought a $46 million loan from the program, and we got america fast forward, $1.75 billion in loans to cities like mine that want to put up their money, 30-one on average, because it is a loan that allows us to leverage their own dollars. i am saying to the people of california, a leg, let's expan -- l.a., let's extend this, and

we will be able to build all of this with the program, american passport, and the extension, in 10 years. we have opened up four of light rail -- three light rail lines, one busway, we are in construction on two others. next year we are going to break ground on the regional connector. an unprecedented effort to remake the city. >> let's talk about our host, charlotte. what do you think of this as a convention city? >> first of all, all of us, don't you just love southern hospitality? i mean it. they are so warm, so gracious. >> different from southern california hospitality? [laughter]

>> actually, we are fairly warm, too. but everyone -- like in spanish, mi casa es su casa. very warm in that respect. this is a beautiful city -- >> what things have you seen? >> i've not been to -- i've been to an interview after another. i've not seen a lot of fun things. i loved the place we were in last night. i love the downtown. i love -- great mayor here. rising star appeared when you talk about the new in south, he is the face of the new south. this is a city that you could

easily see yourself living in. >> you are glad the convention is here? >> absolutely. i mean, look, we want to be the party of the big tent. there is no geographic part of this city that we're not going to work hard to win. we won by 14,000 last time around. we are within the margin of error right now. we are spending a lot of money, and i think that north carolinians are going to be appreciative of that. people want you to work for their vote. we are going to work hard for the vote of the people of this state. >> what are president obama's chances of winning here again? >> i think they are very good.

he is either up or within the margin -- >> new poll in "the charlotte observer" today that romney is up by four, a margin of three. >> ok, within the margin but i did not see that will because i've been from one event to another. this is going to be a long few weeks ahead here. 64 days now. we are going to work hard all the way to election day. we have always said this would be a close election. the country is evenly divided. but i expect we are going to win. >> thank you out there in c-span and, thank you for watching on politico.com. we thank "the charlotte observer" for being a part of

this and your great coverage. we thank bank of america for making this possible. thank you, mayor, for your visit. [applause] host: all week long, politico will be holding their playbook breakfast, and all week long, c- span will be bringing those to you live from charlotte, just like last week in tampa. that is a live picture and said the time warner cable arena, with the democratic convention will kick off tomorrow. live gavel-to-gavel coverage on c-span. "washington journal" continues, and joining us in our d.c. studio is mark mix, president of the national right to work committee. what you mean when you say "right to work"? guest: peter, it is a simple

concept. everyone must have the right to join a union. since 1935, federal law has authorized union officials to have a worker fired for failing to pay dues or fees. that is wrong. it was founded in 1955 by pfeifer ridgeway employees who were forced to pay dues to a railroad union as a condition of their employment. since then, the national right to work committee has lobbied in all 50 states and congress to impose forced unionism and try to roll back at our unions have over america's workers. host: currently, how many states are right to work and how many are not right to work? guest: peter, there are 23 states that have right to work laws on the books. oklahoma in 2001, idaho in 1986. there has been steady progress on the passage of right to work

laws on the state level. host: do you consider your organization to be anti-union? guest: absolutely not, peter. there will be a place for workers organizing together voluntarily. when you throw compulsion into the mix, that is when we began to object. a worker who could be the best worker could be fired simply for failure to pay fees to a private organization. that is wrong, it will always be wrong, and no matter where it comes from, i t.s. wrong. host: can you give us an example of a state and how worker is forced to pay union dues from how much are those union dues? what is the aggregate total? guest: we estimate that union dues are $800 to $850 a year based on the surveys we do. we have a right to legal defense foundation where we represent employees who have had their rates and violated.

in some cases, they have been fired. basically come in the 27 states that don't have the right to work laws, union officials consistently at virtually every case negotiate what is called a union security clause. the union security clause says that every member of the unit, whether they 44 it or not, must pay union dues or fees as a condition of working at that particular site. in our litigation, we represent literally hundreds of thousands of workers across the country and have about to under 12 cases pending right now, 64 at the national labor relations board and several in federal court where work is being threatened with his livelihood for failure to tender dues and fees as a condition of employment. host: is it fair to say that if somebody works at ford or gm, they are actually employed by the uaw? is that wrong? guest: well, no, i would not go that far.

there may be those that think that, but the uaw and ford and gm and chrysler, for that matter, the big three carmakers have consistently agreed to pattern bargaining agreements, where the uaw picks one of the companies and negotiates with them and the others agree to negotiate the conditions of that particular contract. the uaw has a tremendous amount of authority over gm, chrysler, and ford. they are one of the major shareholders of the company, frankly. host: we are talking with mark mix, president of the national right to work committee. you can tweet in a comment, @cspanwj. by the way, 12:30 p.m. eastern

time, president obama will be at the uaw. we will bring the rally live on c-span. how important is organized labor when it comes to democratic politics? guest: well, peter, they are one of the big players in democratic politics, and this is a problem of compulsory unionism. by their own admission, they will spend $1 billion or two in this cycle to reelect him as president. they can extract union dues and fees from workers and use them forifically direct lely candidates, but in voter registration drives. this may be and probably is being used against what they would plead for support. that is another in justice of forced unionism, this forced political conformity, and

organized labor is making a big bet on the democratic party, no question about that. host: a "washington times" editorial you have this morning -- "beagley per spends four times more on politics and lobbying -- big labor spends four times more on politics and lobbying than was previously thought. is spent on all the protests in state capitals, like in wisconsin and indiana, to supporting candidates across the country." guest: we have talked to several folks inside the union. one of them is a former president of the writers guild union. when asked about the ratio of reported political contributions and soft money contributions, he mentioned it was about 10-1. if you take as the numbers at face value, you get to the billions very quickly when it

comes to organize labor cost of political involvement. host: mark mix is president of the national right to work committee prefers to call is from -- first call is from byron in louisiana. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. mix, can you explain to me out in every state with their right to work law, hourly wages of work has gone down? another question -- and is it so bad for a few union workers to put money and an election and people like karl rove, the koch brothers, they can put millions in and nothing is said about it? guest: there is a lot there in

what is being said about the contributions of the people you mentioned in the political process. let's talk about the first thing byron mentnioned, the cost of living. that is just not true. even the afl-cio indicates that. the american federation of teachers, an afl-cio affiliate, compared teachers' salaries across the country, and when they did the first study, they did the real numbers of what teachers were making, and then they did a very interesting thing. they revised those numbers based on the cost of living. they used the index to compare wages in states. you know what the american federation of teachers, the afl- cio, found? teachers in right to work states have higher average incomes and those in other states. people never talk about cost of living-adjusted wages, byron. when you have a plumber in new york city compared to a plumber in utah, have a difference in

the wage rates, but when you factor in the cost of living, individuals in right to work states into a lot better. -- do a lot better. guest: that is right, and why it is so difficult to understand why people rely on government power to compel them. i believe that workers will find them, and union officials' arguments against right to work -- it is -- one it is a choice about whether to assist you with the union or not, they choose not to. if you give workers the choice, they may decide not to join the union, which is a private

organization. that is the essence of it. i have no qualms with the right to services, but why do they need compulsion? host: julie? you are on the air. please go ahead . caller: the way it is right now, the money goes back, goes back to the democrats. host: mark mix? guest: it does have an impact on the political system. they mckenney bets on one party by their own decisions, but the workers compelled to support them are forced to support that activity as well.

peter, we just won a major supreme court case on june 28 of this year. we litigated that on behalf of eight government employees who were forced to pay fees for a political fund for this political employees international union, demanding they take out of their paychecks. it basically said that, now, union officials have asked permission before they can use the money for any political fight-back fine. they are getting close to saying we have to opt in. host: that be handled at the state level or federal level? guest: peter, the problem of forced unionism came from the federal government. it came with the passage of the right track, where they established authorization for

forced unionism, bringing it back to washington and creating a five-member national labor relations board that adjudicates the law. the bias in federal law is in favor of compulsion. we have got a major step for an individual freedom. host: joseph tweets in -- guest: i think that as possible. you cannot be sure, because many use power to artificially inflate wages. in the construction industry, artificially create floors for wages, and you can argue that the floors are good. i'm not sure and that is the case.

a bad union it does not deserve compulsion and does not deserve the privilege of forcing workers to pay them for getting a job. host: della, you are on "washington journal." caller: if we ought to have a right to work in the united states, we ought to touch this with universal rights to join a union. not to be sending to agreements with countries like the recent agreements we signed with colombia, south korea, and panama, where unions are restricted and collective bargaining is prohibited. a worker in the united states should not be faced with the challenge of losing his job because he is belonging to a union that might be sent overseas. this is something we ought to do immediately.

environmental standards are human rights. host: we got the point, della. guest: no one is denied the right to join a union. the right to join a union is simply something that is a right. we cannot stop people from joining private organizations, at least not yet. but the idea that you cannot join a union is just not true, della. host: mark mix, have you ever done a survey of union members to see how they vote? guest: every two or four years, we get data from both sides of the aisle talking about how